Belgrade, August 14 (Tanjug) - By the end of the year a new Law on Environment Protection will be passed, envisaging more efficient measures against polluters, announces the director of the Serbian Health Ministry Environment protection Agency Andjelka Mihajlovic.

The majority of transgressions will be treated as criminal offences. All new factories will have to meet environmental requirements by 2008, Mihajlovic told the Belgrade daily Blic on Tuesday.

She also pointed out that under the Law on Privatization, any privatization application submitted must contain information on environmental impact. She expressed hope that the introduction of dirty technologies would thus be prevented.

"It is through pesticides and expired drugs that dangerous waste is most frequently imported. At the present moment, we have several dozen tons of such drugs, mostly from humanitarian aid," Mihajlovic explains.

"Dangerous substances are stored in secure warehouse facilities, as there are no devices for their controlled incineration," Mihajlovic said, noting that the solution of the problem was only being delayed in that way.